Melanoma Drugs Extending Lives and Working Better Than Chemotherapy–Focus at ASCO

Another targeted melanoma therapy also from GlaxoSmithkline, dabrafenib , was tested against chemotherapy among 345 patients with inoperable late-stage melanomas and it also targets the BRAF gene.  It stopped growth for around half of those taking it.  There could be a potential of combining both dabrafenib and trametinib for a potential therapy. 
Briston Myers also has a treatment that gets the immune system to to fight cancer, Yervoy.  You can also read the abstract from ASCO with further details here.  Glaxo will be applying to the FDA for approval.  This is a real game changer with treating melanoma for sure as it is doing better than just straight chemotherapy.  The next issue will be the cost and how affordable treatments will be. 

This year had some major breakthroughs for cancer at ASCO.  The big focus is in the immune system where the body with targeted therapies helping, shrink the tumors.  All the hard work and research is finally beginning to pay off.  BD 

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CHICAGO — A new type of drug prolonged the lives of patients with advanced melanoma in a clinical trial, potentially adding to a growing number of therapies for a disease that was once nearly untreatable.

“In melanoma, we are living something incredible,”

Dr. Caroline Robert, lead investigator of the study, said after a news conference Sunday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting here.

The new drug, GlaxoSmithKline’s trametinib, also kept the disease from worsening longer than chemotherapy did, said Dr. Robert, who is the head of dermatology at the Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, France.

After six months, 81 percent of those in the trametinib group were alive compared with 67 percent of those in the chemotherapy group. The survival advantage was found even though nearly half the chemotherapy patients switched to trametinib once their disease started to worsen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/health/glaxosmithkline-melanoma-drug-prolongs-patients-lives.html?smid=tw-nytimeshealth&seid=auto